I've been involved for the last couple of months in piecing together my dream kit with used Yamaha Recording Custom drums. Reasons are 1) cost of new vs used and 2) I prefer the older drums of the RC line. I decided I would buy the exact sizes I wanted, regardless of color, and refinish as needed. I'd be going for a black look, thinking that I could re-lacquer odd colors to black. I did research before I started buying drums, and I thought I could pull it off.

It worked. I lucked in to finding most of the drums in black, and had to refinish 3 drums out of 9 that I bought: 8, 10 and 12" toms. The 12 was gray, the 10 red and the 8 white. I won't elaborate on the process, unless someone is really interested. If so, just post a reply and I'll give more details. For now, I'll just say that I carefully used a hi-gloss black lacquer paint in spray cans. Don't try this unless you have a very well ventilated area, like a garage, etc. The fumes of this paint are potent. And the air temperature needs to be reasonably warm for the paint to set-up properly.

You can see the results. Not bad for a first timer. I don't have a photo of the 12" tom before I started, so you see just the 10" and 8" before and after, and the 12" after in both shots.

first off, very nice kit dude, and i have a question. is the shell of your snare copper???